User:Runningfool50

Piper Road Spring Band is an acoustic/bluegrass that formed in 1973. They have performed with several bluegrass legends and have won/been nominated for several prestigious bluegrass awards.

History of members
The band originated when the jukebox at Mitchell's Bar broke down. The owner of the bar called Al Byla, Bob Mason, and Bill Kangaroo at their farmhouse, "Fiend's Club". The Piper Road Spring Band quickly drove to the tavern in Al's 1959 VW Beetle. Playing acoustically, they entertained the crowd at the tavern in terrific fashion. John Widdicombe quickly joined the PRSB.

Approximately 13 years later, the band added Andy Trout to their ranks. These five musicians continue to perform together to this day.

Style
PRSB was born during the prime years of rock & roll. Unsurprisingly, each member of the band came to the band with vastly differing musical backgrounds, including classical, cowboy, folk, blues and Dixieland. As they formed, they became influenced by live performances by Doc Watson and Bill Monroe, as well as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". This lead them to forgo electric guitars and amps in favor of more traditional bluegrass instruments, such as fiddles and mandolins. They are not exclusively bluegrass, however, as they have dabbled in Irish fiddle tunes, country, big band music, novelty, and jam music inspired by none other than the Grateful Dead.

Claims to Fame
The Piper Road Spring Band has been nominated by the National Bluegrass Music Industry awards for the Best Old-Time String Band and have won the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) award for the Best Bluegrass Artist four times, the latest coming in 1998.